MikeElmendorf

I know there is definitely a problem, as I'm coming from a 2009 which had great AC.

Edward'TLS

Give the A/C some time to cool, especially if the car's been cooking under the hot sun for a period of time.

It is best to purge the hot air trapped inside the car first, by leaving one door open, and then keep opening and closing the diagonally opposite door for about 10 times.

This way the cabin will cool down much faster.

In addition, since it is the engine (and pulleys) that drive the A/C compressor, the A/C doesn't cool well in stop and go traffic conditions due to the low idling rpm. It works best when the car is moving along all the times.

dwest1023

Had my 2009 A/C serviced today. Just a evaluate and recharge, and the system was a little low on freon. Probably that way from the factory. The AC cooled ok ,but now it appears to cool down much faster and feels colder, even though the lowest tempt I read is 40 before and after the service. I feel your pain on your ac. The dealer is not going to change anything unless they find a definitive problem. I think I read you are seeing 37 at the center vent. That is way too warm. If I were you I would take a pencil thermometer to the dealer and ask if you can measure the temp in a new TL. Take that reading and compare with yours. Show the service writer what you get, then see what they say.

2010 TL Tech

Hi all. My a/c has worked better this year (if you want to call it that). It varies between 43-46 degrees.How that happened I have no idea. I keep the a/c at 59 rec. button on, fan speed at 3 bars. For those of you who say I am crazy, listen. Your a/c should be ice cold. You can always make it warmer, but you can turn that dial till it breaks off and the car will not get colder. For the price of these cars, the a/c should drop to 40. I have a 06 Scion. On the hottest days here in NY the a/c drops to 40 easily. An 18k Scion works better than a car twice it's price. So remember, BEFORE buying a new Acura, take along a instant read thermometer and during your test drive stick it in the vent and check the a/c prior to purchase.

types1fan

Had my 12 for a month and my AC is cold as hell. Hopefully I wont have any issues.

Jim7707

I live in the desert and 115°F is not uncommon. The A/C in the Infiniti I will be replacing works very well in our climate and I had considered a TL as a possible replacement but thankfully I found this thread before making a huge mistake in buying a car with an ineffective A/C system. I had to live with a Mazda 3 with horrible A/C and ended up getting rid of the car because of it. I don't want to make that mistake twice.

slick316

I live in Oklahoma and its been hot as hell here (100+) and my car is always outside in the heat yet I don't feel that my AC is struggling to cool my car. I wouldn't be able to tolerate a weak AC unit with how hot it gets here. Maybe the 09 is better than the 12, but I don't think the 2012 is lacking.

pimpin-tl

Come on man. There is nothing wrong with this car. Mine now freezes me out after a simple check of the freon.

See thread.

https://acurazine.com/forums/4g-tl-problems-fixes-297/new-2012-c-not-cooling-well-859479/

Jim7707

Thanks slick316 and pimpin-tl. I just get scared when I see threads about the A/C not being up to snuff because around here that is huge deal to me. While I don't run the air all the time like most around here do, when I do run it I want it to function properly.

So I went and did a test drive. Initially, I thought the A/C was a little weak but once we got out on a major street from the auto complex it seemed to work pretty well. Maybe not quite to the level of my Infiniti but not bad.

Beyond that, I loved the car. I've been looking for months at vehicles costing anywhere from $10k to $20k more from all the usual players and for what I need in a car the TL SH-AWD certainly held it's own against the competition. The seats were as good as any including the 5 series and GS which are both wonderful. The sound system is probably better than the competition. I like the design of the cabin better than any other cars I've looked at. From the second I sat down I seemed at home in the TL cockpit. It seems most like to criticize all of the buttons but to me that is much preferred to drilling down menus to make simple adjustments or change radio stations.

The styling probably isn't #1 IMHO but it is liveable to me (especially since the mid-cycle refresh) and better than some others. Fuel economy isn't as good as some but I can buy a lot of gas with $10k-$20K. All-in-all I found the TL to be a winner at thousands less than I was planning to spend. Plus, it comes standard with Acura reliability which can't be said from the European counterparts. It will be Sept before I'm ready to purchase but at this point I'm sold on the TL SH-AWD.

It's funny, all during the process of finding a new car I had a feeling I hadn't looked at the right car yet because I wasn't totally happy with any car I had looked at. I discounted the TL because I didn't want a FWD car and didn't know about the SH-AWD. Once did look though I was sold.

CPR

My '12/TL/SH AWD/Tech, is better & COLDER than my '09/TL/FWD/Tech
Keep mine at 72*, & AUTO/Sync
Perfect!